SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
181 
in the reign, as the work there was begun in 1660. Pepys, in 
his Diary , makes mention of several visits to see how the “ brave 
alterations " progressed, and in October, 1660, he went for a 
“ walk in St. James's Park, where we observed several engines 
at work to draw up water, with which sight I was very much 
pleased." The warrant in which the reference to the French 
gardeners occurs, which many writers have concluded to mean 
Le Notre, runs as follows. It is dated December 10, 1661, 
and is a warrant creating a certain Adrian May “ to be super¬ 
visor of the French gardeners employed at Whitehall, 
St. James's, and Hampton Court, to examine their bills, 
accounts, and see that they have due satisfaction, with a 
salary of £200 a year therefore." 1 Le Notre was a man of very 
different standing, and had been ennobled by Louis XIV., 
and would have been entertained and received at Court, and 
not treated like an ordinary gardener. Furthermore, the names 
of some of the French gardeners appear from other warrants, 
dated June and September, 1661. The first is “ to pay 
Andrew and Gabriel Mollett £240 yearly for wages as the 
King's gardeners, and for them to have lodgings in St. James's 
Park belonging to the gardeners." 2 The same year “ Gabriel 
Mollett " had been buying flowers in Paris for the garden 
at St. James's, for which he sent in a bill 3 for 1,487 French 
livres, or 115 pounds sterling. It appears that he did not 
long enjoy his position as gardener with “ Andrew," for there 
is a petition dated at Whitehall, February 27th, 1662-1663, 
of “ Charles Mollett to the King for payment of £115 due 
for flowers brought from France by his late brother Gabriel, 
and planted in the Royal Gardens, St. James’s Park, with 
a reference thereon to Adrian May, surveyor of the King’s 
gardens, and his report that the flowers, being Anemones and 
Ranunculus, were planted without his knowledge, and are only 
worth £14 to £18." 4 Mollett had certainly not been paid, as 
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles II., 1661-1662. 
2 Ibid., Domestic, 1661-1662 ; also September 27th, 1661. “ Warrent 
to pay Andrew and Gabriel Mollett the yearly sum of ^240 for wages 
for the Royal Garden, St. James’s Park, planting fruit-trees and 
flowers ” (vol. xlii.. No. 41). 
3 Ibid., 1661-1662, vol. xlvii., No. 77. 
4 Ibid., 1663-1664, vol. lxviii., No. 115. 
